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First Medals Decided at GE Edinburgh ITU Duathlon World Championships

Created On: 04 September 2010

The GE Great Britain team landed it's first home gold medal at
the 2010 GE Edinburgh ITU Duathlon World Championships today over
the 5.75km run, 23.3km bike, 3km run course in Holyrood Park. Iain
Dawson won gold in the Tri 6 category (visually impaired) after
overhauling Ralf Arnold from Germany on the challenging, hilly bike
course.

Dawson said: "That was hard. It' s quite a tough course for a
tandem. The hills are technical and testing and the descents are
pretty quick. Running is not my strongest discipline, so I knew
we'd have to work hard to get a result."

First across the finishing line in the multi-disciplinary event
was Austria's Oliver Dreier (Tri 4), demonstrating great run speed
and exceptional bike handling skills around the technical course,
despite only having one arm.

He said: "On the run I was a little bit slow but the bike was
very good. I love it when there are mountains as I am strongest
there. The course is very good, this is brilliant for a world
championships."

The GE Great Britain team won silver medals through James Smith
(Tri 3) from Gloucester, Adrian Howden (Tri 5) from Yorkshire, and
Charlotte Ellis (Tri 6) from Durham. Bronzes came from Tom Perkins
(Tri 4) and Alan Rayment (Tri 1).

Spain claimed two gold medals in the shape of Alain Fuertes (Tri
1) racing in a wheelchair and hand cycle, and Mikel Gamendia
(Tri5).

Italy, Ireland and the USA claimed the other gold medals.
Ireland's visually impaired athlete, Cat Walsh said: "We come from
a cycling background, so we were really pleased to stay with the
British girls on the first run. I'm delighted with that, it's
fantastic."

Tomorrow features amateur athletes aiming for 2010 GE Edinburgh
ITU Duathlon World Championship titles in their age groups. Local
medical student, Craig Dale from Edinburgh will be aiming for a win
on a circuit a course that he has been able to train on more
regularly than most.

On Sunday Edinburgh's Cat Morrison will try to regain the title
she last won in 2006. She will face the current European Champion,
Ruth Van der Meijden from Holland.

Morrison said: "There are so many good athletes here this year,
the field seems pretty strong. We've got existing European
medallists, existing World medallists and I'm sure there are a
couple of unknowns in there.

"The course is just stunning, especially on a day like this.
It's fantastic that international athletes can come here and see
Edinburgh at its best like this."